(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhong Weiguang, a Chinese scholar and freelance writer living in Germany, began researching Falun Gong after the April 25 appeal, when 10,000 practitioners peacefully gathered in Beijing to request fair treatment from the government. On the occasion of the 21st anniversary of Falun Gong's introduction to the public, Mr. Zhong shared his observations in an interview with Minghui.org.
The following was written and compiled based upon the transcript of the interview.
Mr. Zhong Weiguang
The April 25 Appeal Caught My Attention
Early in the summer of 1999, I read news about the April 25 incident in a newspaper in Germany. I had not known anything about Falun Gong prior to that. Therefore, I was surprised and a little shocked, but also pleased.
Chinese people had gone through so many “struggles,” notably the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, which had simply reinforced the Chinese people's memories of terror at the hands of their own government. And suddenly, 10 years after the massacre, more than 10,000 Chinese had peacefully gathered near the Zhongnanhai government complex. I found it hard to believe.
These people were peaceful and even cleaned up the site before they left. I found that hard to believe as well, for we all know that the Chinese do not pay much attention to such things. For the 10,000 people in China who had attended the spontaneous event, and without specific instructions to clean up, they demonstrated better character compared to the average Chinese.
What's more, the practitioners' resistance has lasted so long. The ensuing crackdown did not manage to suppress Falun Gong. The appeal continues today, and it has evolved.
In the beginning, I could not believe the news I was reading. I knew too well that the several decades under the reign of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had completely destroyed Chinese traditions. Traditional Chinese culture had been sabotaged so often that it had become like a plot of farmland that's been plowed over and over again. The damage was thorough.
Yet at this time, when the sabotage seemed at its peak, Falun Gong emerged! I was pleasantly surprised. Yet I could not figure out where its strength came from.
I did not understand the strength of the core values of Falun Gong, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, at the time. Later, I realized that such faith was deeply rooted in the souls of its cultivators. Otherwise, they could not have achieved such a high degree of character development.
With time, I came to understand that the April 25 appeal came about because of slander by He Zuoxiu, a university professor. Before I came to Germany in 1988, I worked at the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and knew He Zuoxiu. The CCP’s Central Propaganda Department was a real-life manifestation of the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984. Its “academic thoughts” were merely political propaganda used to mount attacks. Everything worked to sustain the power of the Chinese Communist Party.
The “intellectual elites” led by Yu Guangyuan at the Central Propaganda Department were in charge of media censorship and creating fabricated news. Such propaganda tactics began in 1949. People in this group later became the backbone defenders of CCP ideology in areas such as dialectics, philosophy, and the history of science. Most ideological articles that have served as weapons in various persecution campaigns were written by this group.
He Zuoxiu began his career by carrying the purse for Yu Guangyuan. He was later dispatched to the former USSR to study physics. Liu Dun of the Office for the Prevention and Handling of Cult-Related Issues (the 610 Office) later became the head of the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences and is a typical example of someone groomed by this group.
My Thoughts After Getting to Know Falun Gong
I taught myself philosophy when I was sent to a rural area during the Cultural Revolution in 1969. While reflecting, I realized that I had been fooled by the CCP for 20 years, and I no longer believed in Marxism.
In 1970, I started my systematic studies in philosophy, mathematics, physics, foreign languages, and history. I wanted to be able to clearly illustrate the true nature of the CCP. In the early 1980s, I became a graduate student at the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In 1999, I came across some Western books on totalitarianism, especially the works of Ralf G. Dahrendorf. According to Dahrendorf, totalitarianism has two main characteristics: an opposition to contemporary human rights and freedom, and a stance against traditional values. In addition, Dahrendorf says that totalitarianism is bound to be resisted and confronted.
However, I was confused as to why I had not seen any resistance or movements of a traditional force to the regime since it had been against traditional culture since its inception in 1949. After the 1990s, superficially, many areas in China did not seem to be so opposed to tradition anymore. They even adopted some formalities of traditional culture. Could the CCP peacefully co-exist with traditional culture?
It was during this time that Falun Gong emerged. During my interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) at the end of 1999, I pointed out that the Falun Gong phenomenon represented the awakening and revival of traditional Chinese culture, and that it was not a result of the 1989 pro-democracy movement. My viewpoint was then only a rough theory.
In February 2010, I attended some protest activities in Berlin during a visit of former CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin. It was my first time getting to know Falun Gong practitioners, and this experience helped me gain a first-hand perspective.
I knew that a few of the Falun Gong practitioners had taken part in the 1989 student protests. Many of them were now focused on making a living and doing business. These several Falun Gong practitioners drove a long way to attend the Berlin protests in very cold weather. They even took their kids. I was very moved, and this left a deep impression on me.
Falun Gong practitioners act upon their hearts rather than an organization, orders, or personal gain. When I asked one practitioner how many would show up for the protest activities, he said that he did not know, but that people would come when it was time. Honestly speaking, I was skeptical. I thought that the real information was not being shared with me because I was an outsider. After a decade, I now believe what he told me. Every activity was treated in this way, and they always have been.
The current Chinese social science logic is strange. For example, the April 25 appeal is unthinkable and illogical for the Chinese who have been through so many brutal persecution campaigns at the hands of the CCP. Especially after 1989's bloody crackdown, for so many people to still spontaneously gather near Zhongnanhai while maintaining such good discipline, it could not be explained using the “normal” Chinese logic. However, if we examine it from another perspective, from the perspective of someone with true belief, then not attending was simply unreasonable.
This idea intends to show all Chinese, including myself, a self-proclaimed free intellectual, that Chinese people's mentality and logic are so different from those of people in normal societies. This is due to the long-distorted environment that has been constantly manipulated under strict CCP surveillance in China.
In the 30 years before 1999, I read many books. In the early 1990s, I stopped pondering over Western framework-style thinking and started reevaluating traditional Chinese culture. Out of my urge to research cultural phenomena, I began my research on Falun Gong. In later years, I broke through the constraints of academic frameworks and advanced my understanding of Falun Gong. Such thinking has also inspired and broadened my understanding of traditional Chinese culture and my understandings of the entire world.
(Continued in Part 2)
